I was privileged enough to go to the Toronto Whisky Society’s recent tasting, in which we were able to serve five different high end malts, all of which are available at the Kensington Wine Market, where a member was able to pick it up and bring it back to us.
We were also lucky enough to have a well respected whisky person walk us through each whisky.
So to start, we of course started with an Irish whiskey. And I was quite interested in that, just came back from Ireland and won’t shut up about it.
The Teeling family put aside barrels that they deemed good. Makes more sense than putting away whiskies you didn’t like. Eventually some of these barrels showed up on the market, and the independent bottles came a calling.
As such, we don’t know the age, we don’t know where it’s from, and we don’t know how much grain whiskey or how much malt whiskey there is. We do know it’s a blend, even though it says Single Malt.
Confused yet? Well so was I. And then I said screw it and started loving the whiskey. Kinda like how people started loving the bomb in the Cold War, except without the coming apocolypse and this was whiskey and oh god that doesn’t make sense why did I write it?
Let’s see how this tastes, shall we?
We were also lucky enough to have a well respected whisky person walk us through each whisky.
So to start, we of course started with an Irish whiskey. And I was quite interested in that, just came back from Ireland and won’t shut up about it.
The Teeling family put aside barrels that they deemed good. Makes more sense than putting away whiskies you didn’t like. Eventually some of these barrels showed up on the market, and the independent bottles came a calling.
As such, we don’t know the age, we don’t know where it’s from, and we don’t know how much grain whiskey or how much malt whiskey there is. We do know it’s a blend, even though it says Single Malt.
Confused yet? Well so was I. And then I said screw it and started loving the whiskey. Kinda like how people started loving the bomb in the Cold War, except without the coming apocolypse and this was whiskey and oh god that doesn’t make sense why did I write it?
Let’s see how this tastes, shall we?
Price: $254.99 CAD at Kensington Wine Market
Region: Ireland
Abv: 51.8%
Colour: 7.5Y 9/6
Nose: Cotton, grapefruit, hair spray, petunias, metal, bubblegum
Light at first, there’s some floral/cotton notes, some metallic/chemical notes, and even some bubblegum. I can see why this was first, because even at the high strength it’s light on the nose.
Nice amount of tart/acidic notes as well.
Taste: Ginger, cinnamon, rosehips, peach, cumin, floral chocolate
Spicy tea is a note I wrote. Or did I? We’ll never knew for certain (yes, I did). The taste is a lot stronger than the nose would denote. Still has some earth and floral notes, though they are more integrated now.
So yeah, spicy tea. Sold to you by a white dud with dreadlocks.
Finish: Violet, fruit salad, cinnamon, radish, over-chewed Juicy Fruit
More fruity on the finish. Lovely cinnamon, and an interesting fruity/fake note that comes out. The earth isn’t helping, however pobody’s nerfect.
Just like my English teacher.
Conclusion: Spicy, floral, and tasty. Lighter than I was expecting at cask strength, this is like the low intensity Irish whiskey that’s sent to the US and Canada however with more richness and more development. It’s the step between us. Like the ocean, but a step and not a big amount of water.
I enjoyed the chocolate, I enjoy floral notes, and I found any “off” notes on the nose actually worked with it. It is a subtle whiskey, so keep that in mind when trying it.
84/100
World Whiskey review #268, Ireland review #67, Whiskey Network review #1190
tomoderawhisky.ca 
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